MSC Divina Review

4.0 / 5.0
1,913 reviews

Wonderful First Experience with MSC

Review for the Eastern Caribbean Cruise on MSC Divina
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NellieVA
6-10 Cruises • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Dec 2013
Traveled with children

We just returned from a seven-day sailing aboard the beautiful MSC Divina over Christmas week. As perhaps many of you reading this review, I spent the past several months reading fervently on these boards seeking out as much information as possible about MSC, in general, and the Divina in particular. My wife, (teenage) daughter, and I have been on nearly a dozen cruises running the gamut from Princess (Coral and Caribbean), Norwegian (EPIC and Spirit), RCCL (Explorer and Imagination of the Seas), Carnival (Fascination), and HAL (Oosterdam and Westerdam), but this was our first experience with MSC. I can already say, with satisfaction, that it will not be our last, as we’re already booked aboard the Orchestra in August to visit Norway and Sweden.

In addition to my family, my in-laws traveled with us for the holiday journey. Information provided before the sailing was much more sparse than on other lines, and – as regular readers know – the MSC website truly sucks. We had booked through a travel agent, so any calls I made to MSC with questions were – understandably – directed back to the TA. In the end, the pre-boarding documents are sparse. Ours only showed our dinner assignments, which were not what we had requested. If the website had been more robust, and allowed one to look at details of your booking, we might have caught this mistake earlier. As it was, it required a 30-minute wait once on board to have the maitre d’ change our seating so we could all eat together at the early seating. Other very basic information that MSC really does need to provide before sailing are dinner assignments and times (for our sailing, 1st seating was 5:45pm, and second at 8:30pm), and – most importantly – the breakdown or attire requirements for the main dinner dining. I completely packed the wrong clothes in anticipation of more than one formal night. I do, however, give MSC kudos for having “casual” night, in additional to “gala” (read formal), and “informal” (tie and jacket for men). For our sailing, we had two casual nights (first and last), one formal, one semi-formal, and three color and decade-themed nights – red, white, and “70’s, 80’s, and 90’s.” If we’d known this, we would have packed differently, as I’m sure most other passengers would, and it could have been fun. Anyway, note to MSC – improve the pre-embarkation info.

We flew into Miami, not through MSC, on the day of sailing. We used a taxi from MIA to the Port, which is a great deal at $24 per carload, especially as we were a party of five. I never saw an option for an MSC airport transfer, though it must exist, as I saw them listed on our final day of departure. Again – note to MSC – provide more pre-departure information.

Cabin Review

Very large and spacious cabin, with a double sofabed. Furthest cabin back on aft side. One half of the balcony facing is metal; one half is plexiglass. Very quiet and convenient location, close to the aft elevator bank and next to the outdoor staircase.

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